Business briefs

Wednesday

Feb 6, 2013 at 6:00 AM

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Insurer Unum Group posted a fourth-quarter profit of $233.9 million on Tuesday, reversing a $369 million loss from the same period a year earlier.

The company’s revenue of $2.7 billion during the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 was up from revenue of $2.6 billion a year earlier, Unum said. Diluted earnings per share of 85 cents compared to a loss of $1.26 per diluted share the same period the year before, according to a news release from Unum.

For the full year 2012, Unum posted net income of $894.4 million, or $3.17 per diluted share, on revenue of $10.5 billion. That compared to net income of $284.2 million or 94 cents per diluted share on revenue of $10.3 billion in 2011.

“We continued to generate solid performance across much of the company and showed some improvement in those areas that have been below our expectations this year,” Chief Executive Thomas R. Watjen wrote in a letter to Unum workers.

Unum has operations in Worcester.

BOSTON — Massachusetts employers gained confidence in the economy during January, but their outlook remained gloomier than their view at the same time last year, according to the Associated Industries of Massachusetts Business Confidence Index released Tuesday.

AIM, a trade group for employers, said its monthly index rose 2.6 points in January to hit 50.4, which is barely above the midway or neutral point on the 100-point scale. During the same month last year, the index was 2.4 points higher.

AIM economic advisers said in a news release that employers were encouraged that federal policy-makers reached an agreement on taxes and showed signs of working on other issues, such as immigration. Yet economic trends and coming policy decisions also moderated confidence, according to Raymond G. Torto, global chief economist at CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. and chairman of AIM’s economic advisers.

“The domestic economic recovery has been painfully slow, with essentially no growth in the fourth quarter of 2012, although we do appear to be consolidating our gains, and the threat of a eurozone financial meltdown has receded,” Mr. Torto said in a news release. “The federal budget cuts that are next on Congress’s agenda could be damaging to major sectors of the state’s economy, ranging from higher education and health care to defense manufacturing, so many employers face another round of uncertainty.”

NEWARK, N.J. — Eighteen people have been charged in what may be one of the nation’s largest credit card fraud rings, a sprawling international scam that duped credit rating agencies and used thousands of fake identities to steal at least $200 million, federal authorities said Tuesday.

The elaborate scheme involved improving fake cardholders’ credit scores, allowing the scammers to borrow more money that they never repaid, investigators said.

“The accused availed themselves of a virtual cafeteria of sophisticated frauds and schemes, whose main menu items were greed and deceit,” said David Velazquez, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Newark field office.

The U.S. attorney in Newark, Paul Fishman, described an intricate Jersey City-based con that began in 2007, operated in at least 28 states and wired money to Pakistan, India, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Romania, China and Japan.

The group used at least 7,000 fake identities to obtain more than 25,000 credit cards, Fishman said. Investigators documented $200 million in losses, but the figure could rise, he said.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. — The end is near for the shoe, wheelbarrow or iron in the classic Monopoly game as fans vote in the final hours on which token to eliminate and which piece to replace it.

The eight tokens identify the players and have changed quite a lot since Parker Brothers bought the game from its original designer in 1935. The latest changes mark the first time that fans have a say on which piece to add and which one to toss.

The voting on Facebook is scheduled to close just before midnight Tuesday.

So far, the wheelbarrow, shoe and iron are neck and neck for elimination. Pawtucket, R.I.-based toy maker Hasbro Inc. will announce the new addition Wednesday morning.